Payment
by Satan Abraham
Summary: Payment from Penny is always interesting. [oneshot] [set between plague & fear] [onesided orcward] [penny. penny's here] [i feel like you're getting what this is]


Howard Bassem bounced from foot-to-foot, reached to knock, then decided to get the sleeping pills out of his backpack before he did that. Or… not. He'd be going in there anyway, right? God, Penny freaked him out. He didn't know why she needed the sleeping pills, nor did he care, but the idea that she could give him whatever he wanted to see and then decide she'd had enough and wanted to terrify him out of his mind was enough to make him supremely nervous.

There was also the fact that Caine had taken over here, and Howard wasn't technically supposed to be here. But most of his customers were here, so he mostly just snuck in when he could and pretended that he was supposed to be there.

He knocked.

Penny opened the door almost immediately, a sickening smile plastered on her face. "I wondered how long you would stand there," she said, and Howard managed a grimace. She swept her hand toward her apartment. "Come in. I cleaned up special."

Howard nodded and stepped inside. He dropped his backpack on a table and unzipped the side, digging through bottles and past a knife before he found his pills. He kept them separated in bags, and he'd written what kinds they were in Sharpie on the front of them.

"Sleeping pills, right?" he said, like he didn't know.

"Do you have some Valium, too?" Penny asked. He did, as a matter of fact, and he glanced up to meet her eyes.

"'s gonna cost you extra," he said. Penny tapped her fingers against her lower lip like she was trying to be sexy while she thought. It did nothing for him.

"I'll feed you while you're here," she said.

Howard thought about it, hesitating. He wanted to be home before dark, because the alternative was to either find someplace weird to sleep or trek through the darkness. There was also the matter that Penny was crazy, and he wasn't totally sure that he wanted her preparing his food.

But, hell, food.

"Sure, whatever," he said, passing over both of the things she asked for. She beamed again, skipping over to a cupboard and depositing them carefully in a teacup. A goddam teacup. Howard rolled his eyes, and then she turned back to him.

"Do you want to eat first, or…" she said, and he swallowed. This was weird. This was really weird, but, hell – it was happening. As far as payment went in the FAYZ, Penny's form was definitely the most unique.

"We can eat later," he said. His voice cracked. Her smile widened. She looked like a fucking marionette, with her smile painted on her face. It was creepy. It was really creepy. "So, how do you-"

"Come in the living room," she said, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him. "It's much more comfortable in there. There. There. Sit down. Alright. Just tell me what – who – you want. And I can do that."

Howard took a deep breath and pressed his hand against his forehead.

"I want – I want Orc."

Penny looked like she was about to laugh. If she had, he probably would have gotten up and left, payment be damned. But she didn't laugh, she just nodded.

"Alright," she said. Howard stayed seated where he was, unsure what he was supposed to do, if anything. She smiled, and in the next second it was Orc. Orc looking at him like he looked like Astrid.

Oh, shit, she was good.

Orc knelt down on the floor and grabbed Howard around the waist, pulling him close and kissing him. It wasn't as unpleasant as he might have thought – the sensation of kissing a rock, the little itching at one corner of his mouth and the hardness of the fingers, that was all there, but it wasn't… it wasn't bad. And so Howard kissed him back.

He leaned forward, kissing his best friend (this _image_ of his best friend) with tears at the corners of his eyes and his hands shaking and his heart beating fast. He was breathing hard, his breath coming in and out in short gasps as they kissed, again and again and again. And when it was all over, after some time that was similarly forever and not long enough, he leaned back and tried to control his heart.

"You're really good at that," he said. Penny stood and smiled.

"The kissing or the images?"

"Both," he said. "Better than he probably could have been."

She just laughed.

* * *

 **So, remember that line in Fear when Penny mentions that she got sleeping pills from Howard, and she said he had "his own fantasy – that you wouldn't believe." As much of a Howdilio person I am, my gut says that was probably Orc.**


End file.
